Political spat erupts while CEO on leave
The on leave CEO is still being paid up to $13,000 a week as opposition politicians says ‘I told you so’ over the mega polytech’s problems. Stephen Ward reports.
The chief executive of underfire mega polytech Te Pū kenga continues to earn up to $13,000 a week on ‘‘special leave’’ – while Labour and National are at loggerheads – after a highly critical report on the new Hamilton-headquartered organisation.
Te Pū kenga confirmed yesterday that the organisation’s CEO Stephen Town is on paid leave. The organisation’s annual report last year indicates Town may be paid between $670,000 and $679,999 a year, or up to more than $13,000 gross a week.
By comparison, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is reportedly earning just over $470,000 annually.
National tertiary education spokesperson Penny Simmonds said the Government was warned by education leaders that Te Pū kenga was the wrong model for Aotearoa.
A former long-term chief executive at the Southern Institute of Technology, her comments came after a very critical Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) report to Education Minister Chris Hipkins, which warned of a ballooning $110 million annual deficit – $53.5m more than budgeted.
This was largely due to lower enrolments and there were concerns the deficit could go even higher.
Simmonds said senior sector CEOs, including herself, told Hipkins the model for Te Pū kenga was wrong and their warnings had ‘‘come to pass’’.
‘‘He has pulled the whole sector down to the lowest common denominator,’’ she said.
The reforms had failed to address the problems of institutions having difficulties while the good performers had lost incentives to do well because they were now part of an allinclusive entity, she claimed.
Also, around 180 head office jobs had been established.
‘‘He [the minister] has created this massive bureaucracy at head office,’’ she said.
‘‘This is a whole new layer of non-teaching bureaucracy.’’
There was also talk of up to 600 redundancies in the sector, although this had not been confirmed.
Simmonds said about $200m had been spent setting up Te Pū kenga.
She had no additional information on why Te Pū kenga
CEO Town had gone on special leave late last week but added: ‘‘I think the minister has set Te Pū kenga an unachievable task, so it’s always going to fail regardless of who is leading it.’’
National planned to keep asking written and oral parliamentary questions about Te Pū kenga and to push for going back to the old system and deal individually with institutions facing problems. That should have been the way things were handled in the first place, Simmonds said.
Stuff asked Hipkins how confident he is problems Te Pū kenga is facing will be sorted out in a timely way, how it will fund the bigger deficit it faces and whether he knew why more progress hadn’t been made, but he didn’t reply directly.
‘‘I’ve made my expectations clear and know Te Pū kenga is working hard on the transition,’’ he said in a statement.
‘‘I’ve also been clear the projected deficit was too high and that more work needed to be done there.’’
On Simmonds’ criticism, he said: ‘‘National’s approach would lock in deficits and not fix the underlying issues. Under the old model, long-term deficits were projected, rising to up to $156 million in 2022.
‘‘When Labour came into government we had to pump around $100 million into a number of polytechnics just to keep the lights on. The model was unsustainable.’’
Asked about whether on ‘‘special leave’’ chief executive Town was still being paid, why he was on leave and for how long, and whether he was contributing at all to Te Pū kenga’s business at the moment, Hipkins deferred to Te Pū kenga to answer.
On whether Town is continuing to have any input into Te Pū kenga business on leave, a Te Pū kenga spokesperson said: ‘‘He will be fully stepping away from Te Pū kenga for the duration of his leave.’’
Asked, given the public interest, whether more could be said about the reason for Town being on leave and when he might return, the spokesperson said: ‘‘Mr Town is on leave for personal reasons and so appropriately we will be respecting his privacy.’’
No complaints had been raised with Te Pū kenga about his conduct while chief executive, the spokesperson said.